San Jose Decides to Display Rainbow Flags Near Its New Airport Chick-fil-A

After approving the addition of a Chick-fil-A at its local airport, the San Jose, California, city council has decided it now wants to send a message to LGBTQ people as the fast food restaurant prepares to open.

The council voted 11-0 this week to hang rainbow flags in support of LGBTQ people along with pink, blue and white flags for transgender rights near a Chick-fil-A location due to open next month at the San Jose International Airport, according to NBC News.

The vote came after the council heard from Paul Escobar, president of a nonpartisan LGBTQ political action group in the Bay Area. He also organized a small protest outside of San Jose City Hall before meeting with council members over his concerns about having a Chick-fil-A at the local airport.

Ken Yeager, the first openly gay elected official in Santa Clara County, told NBC he came up with the idea of displaying the flags and submitted it for a vote.

San Jose Vice Mayor Charles Jones said the plan is to have a flag or flags near the restaurant and outside of the airport

Recently, San Antonio, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, blocked the restaurant chain from opening locations at their airports, stemming from concerns the company has a record of supporting anti-gay organizations. San Antonio is expected to reconsider its decision this week.

As CBN News reported, last month the left-wing ThinkProgress published issued a report widely circulated in the media accusing the company of "anti-equality" giving. This week, Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, called out the left for its attacks on the company's donations to the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and a small Christian home for troubled young men in Vidalia, Georgia. He accused the left of waging a war on Chick-fil-A, which he called "Chicken McCarthyism" in a scathing op-ed published online Tuesday.

"To consider all that the Salvation Army does — its thrift shops, aid for the homeless, disaster relief, anti-trafficking programs, Christmas gifts to needy children and much, much more — and reduce the organization to an allegedly anti-LGBTQ group is simply perverse," Lowry wrote.

The National Review editor says public officials taking part in the current campaign against Chick-fil-A need to go back and read the Constitution.

"Any public official joining the punitive campaign against Chick-fil-A needs a remedial lesson in the Constitution, which forbids discrimination against private companies on the basis of political or religious viewpoint. It is the enemies of Chick-fil-A who are intolerant and out of the mainstream. They desperately need to abandon their tawdry McCarthyite crusade — and Eat Mor Chikin," Lowry wrote.

Chick-fil-A has not responded to a request for comment from NBC, but said in a statement last week that "recent coverage about Chick-fil-A continues to drive an inaccurate narrative about our brand."

The company said it does not "have a political or social agenda" and that "it embraces all people, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity."

"We want to make it clear that our sole focus is on providing delicious food and welcoming everyone — not being a part of a national political conversation," it said.